Typically, environmental causes are associated with left-leaning politics, and pro-military action is publicly associated with the right. However, a large number of veterans are liberals or are willing to embrace bipartisanship when it comes to sustainability. Thus, some veterans are speaking up about environmental damage.
We, humans, are destroying the Earth’s wilderness, very fast. Actually, we are the main (and probably the only) cause of the sixth major extinction event in the history of our planet. Now, a recent UN report says at least one million species (animals, plants, and insects) are at the risk of extinction. There will be serious consequences for life on Earth, and also for human beings.
NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) on the International Space Station (ISS) beams laser light down to Earth to reveal the height and density of trees and vegetation.
Many of us think that rapid environmental change is a quintessentially modern crisis. Today, temperatures are soaring, topsoil is washing away, phosphorous is being diluted, forests are retreating, pesticides are sterilising farmland, fertilisers are choking waterways, and biodiversity is plummeting under the onslaught of overpopulated, industrialised societies. Some of these changes are indeed truly new. But many others have deep roots and distant echoes in the early modern period, the years between around 1400 and 1800 when much of the world began to assume its present form. Recently, scientists, geographers, historians, and archaeologists have combined expertise and evidence to reveal just how profound early modern environmental transformations really were.
Around 55.5 million years ago, there was a time period with more than 5°C – 8 °C warmer global average temperature than today, which named “Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum” (PETM). As a result, there were crocodiles and even crocodiles in the Arctic and the region was completely ice-free. Now, a new study suggests that if we keep burning fossil fuels at the current rate, the Earth will be again 8 degrees warmer within the next few hundred years. We are pumping 10 times more carbon into the atmosphere than when there were palm trees in the Arctic. We’re going to face another PETM-like event soon.
In this episode of NASA Explorers (Season 1 Episode 7), the scientists go back in time – by going underground. In the Arctic, a frozen layer of soil – permafrost, the “permanently” frozen earth – trapped dead plants and animals for thousands of years. As the climate warms, that soil is beginning to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide and methane – two harmful greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Here is a quick summary of the Earth’s snow cover between March 2000 and December 2018. These snow cover maps are made from observations collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.
The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s north and south poles. It is the reason why extreme winter conditions are bringing record-breaking cold temperatures to parts of North America.
Musicians from Zambia (Africa) protest the destruction of the environment and the wildlife with the song titled “
Based on the Paris Climate Agreement, more than 6,000 cities, states, and provinces in dozens of countries must drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to save life as we know it. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report foretells an inhospitable Earth unless we achieve this monumental undertaking.